


A Little Dingy

by LadyDrace



Series: The Dog Walker 'Verse [15]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Dog Shelters, Dogs, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 11:18:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2810300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyDrace/pseuds/LadyDrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam and Gabriel go to the local shelter to look for a new puppy for Gabriel. They don't find what they expect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Dingy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [catiemo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/catiemo/gifts).



> This is a Christmas present for Catie, who deserves ALL THE FLUFF AND PUPPIES!! <3
> 
> Unbetaed.

There were so many puppies. After an hour at the local shelter, Sam felt like lying down and just letting the little adorable furballs crawl all over him, and he was smiling so broadly his face hurt. God, they were cute.

 

Gabriel was a little more subdued, however.

 

“You sure you're ready for this?” Sam asked quietly. “If you need more time...”

 

“No. No, I need a new dog. But these... these are _too_ new, I think.” He smiled when another little chubby pup waddled over and licked his hand. “You're so adorable my teeth hurt, munchkin, but I'm a grumpy old man. I think I'm too old for you.”

 

He got to his feet with a grunt, and glared when Sam smiled at him.

 

“What.”

 

“You're not old. And you're generally not grumpy. Just a little bit of an asshole,” Sam pointed out, and bent down to kiss his cheek, which did make Gabriel smile a little. Mission accomplished.

 

“You wanna leave?”

 

“No. I think I wanna check out the older dogs.”

 

“All right,” Sam agreed, and followed Gabriel out of the puppy pen. They'd talked about it before coming, and agreed that a puppy might be easier to fit into their little family. Bones was also getting on in years, and Sam secretly worried that Gabriel might not be able to handle another loss again so soon if they got an older dog. But it was his choice, and Sam was happy to let him decide.

 

They went slowly down the line of cages, almost all the dogs coming up to the bars as they passed. Gabriel would stop and say hi to some of them, but none of them seemed to catch his eye. They spent another half hour looking around, but eventually Gabriel heaved a sigh and gave up.

 

They went to the reception desk to let the shelter employee on duty know that they were leaving, and Gabriel was looking idly at a pin board with various shelter events posted on it while Sam asked about opening hours for another visit when Gabriel felt up to it.

 

“Well _hello_ there.”

 

Sam turned around to see Gabriel crouching down to pet what had to be the ugliest dog Sam had ever seen. One eye was only half open, its tongue lolled out of the side of its mouth, and its mottled black and white fur was of so many different lengths it looked like a half-plucked feather duster. But it was panting happily, and was rubbing up against Gabriel's foot, almost falling over in its excitement for tummy rubs, and Gabriel was looking... fond, as he crouched down to pet it.

 

“Who's this?” Sam asked, and the shelter worker looked up.

 

“Oh, that's Dingy. She's been here longer than most of our other dogs. She's got some health issues, and she's... well, not considered as cute, so she mostly hangs out with us here in reception. But she's perfectly adoptable if you're willing to accept her needs.”

 

“Dingy?” Gabriel asked, but didn't even look away from the excited little mutt.

 

The shelter worker grinned. “Well, yeah, when she got here she'd obviously been through the mill, living on the street. Her eye was infected, and she had a bad case of scabies, teeth problems, lung infection... I could go on. She's all better now, but as you can see, she's a little dinged. So, Dingy.”

 

Sam was going to ask more questions, but before he could, Gabriel scooped up the little wagging bundle and plopped her down on the counter. “She's coming home with us.”

 

“You sure?” the shelter worker asked, smiling a little weakly, obviously unsure she was hearing him right.

 

Gabriel _beamed_. “Yep! We've bonded. Nothing I can do.” Sam felt almost like crying from how the spark was back in Gabriel's voice, and he had to swallow hard before he could focus on getting the paperwork done, and pay attention to Dingy's special needs.

 

Dingy was special all right, but not nearly as old as she looked, barely four years, and Sam shuddered to think what conditions she'd lived under to get so banged up. She needed two different kinds of medicine several times a week, and could only have softer foods thanks to having lost the majority of her teeth. Her fur was healthy, but grew in strange patches, so even though she was trimmed short, she looked... unusual. She drooled uncontrollably, and made a really loud slurpy noise when she remembered to drag her tongue back into her mouth occasionally.

 

But Gabriel had obviously fallen hard and fast, and Sam was going out of his skin with worry that Bones might not accept her. But he needn't have worried. Bones took one look at the strange little creature padding towards him, and immediately started licking her so enthusiastically she fell over, scraggly tail wagging so hard it almost thwapped Bones in the eye.

 

Sam put his arm around Gabriel's shoulders, and felt him heave a sigh deeply enough that he sagged from it as they watched the dogs getting to know each other.

 

“Finally,” Gabriel breathed.

  
“Hm?”

 

“I miss Chewie. I miss him a lot. But I don't feel right without a dog. This... this is right.

 

Sam nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, it's perfect.”

 

Dingy made a weird squeaky noise that was apparently her version of a bark, and Bones whined excitedly at her.

 

“Yeah. Perfect.”

 

End.

 


End file.
